If the people of Scotland deliver a Yes vote in next year's referendum, Scotland will have its Independence Day on 24 March 2016. The date is included in the SNP's white paper on independence, due to be revealed at Glasgow Science Centre on the banks of the Clyde on Tuesday.

The chosen date is not without historical significance: on the same day in 1603 the Union of the Crowns occurred, when James VI of Scotland also became James I of England and Ireland after the death of his cousin Elizabeth I, while on 24 March 1707 the Acts of Union – which merged the parliaments of Scotland and England – were signed, making one single country, Great Britain.

The SNP claims that the white paper, which runs to a hefty 670 pages and 170,000 words, is the most detailed and comprehensive blueprint for an independent country that has ever been published. At a fundraising event for activists on Friday night, Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, said: "No nation has ever been better prepared or better researched for independence." More than 200 international journalists have secured accreditation for the launch.

Around 20,000 copies have been printed under a formidable security blanket. Advisers refused even to reveal which typeface had been chosen to bear the portentous messages.

Salmond further revealed that the final proof-reading was only completed in a Beijing hotel room during his visit to China earlier this month.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's deputy first minister, said: "This is a landmark document which sets out the economic, social and democratic case for independence.

"It demonstrates Scotland's financial strengths and details how we will become independent – the negotiations, preparations and agreements that will be required in the transition period from a vote for independence in September next year to our proposed Independence Day of 24 March 2016."

The white paper on independence is probably the most important published in the country since the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, which asked Pope John XXII to make Scotland a sovereign independent state.

It will certainly be the most radical and will signpost how vast is the distance between Scotland and England in social and economic policy.

Hinting at this, Sturgeon added: "The route to a successful Scotland is greater economic growth that benefits all and which supports greater participation – particularly amongst women – in the workplace and the economy as a whole." Salmond has also hinted at an open-border immigration policy.

Salmond remained upbeat, however. At Glasgow's Thistle Hotel on Friday night a 22-piece Gaelic choir sang Highland Cathedral. As the bucket was passed around to raise funds for next year's campaign, Salmond quoted Pandit Nehru, the first prime minister of an independent India, saying: "A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance."